State police have charged a Lebanon County man with using an X account labeled \u201cPennsylvania militia\u201d to post a series of escalating threats this spring, including a \u201chit list\u201d of Democratic lawmakers that included two who represent parts of Berks County.<\/p>\n
Investigators said the posts targeted legislators \u2014 among them Sens. Judy Schwank and Katie Muth, who represent parts of Berks \u2014 and described ambush tactics, armed conflict with law enforcement and a planned \u201cMemorial Day operation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Troopers said the posts by Adam G. Berryhill, 42, of Lebanon collectively showed a pattern of behavior consistent with preparation for future violence.<\/p>\n
Berryhill waived his preliminary hearing Thursday before District Judge Aurelis Figueroa. He was returned to Lebanon County Prison in lieu of $250,000 bail to await further court action.<\/p>\n
According to the probable cause affidavit:<\/p>\n
On April 28, a state trooper assigned to the dignitary security section was conducting routine safety checks for House Speaker Joanna McClinton of Philadelphia when he was alerted to threatening posts directed at her and other Democratic lawmakers.<\/p>\n
The posts appeared on an X account using the handle @Pennsylvanwb and the display name \u201cPennsylvania Militia.\u201d<\/p>\n
On April 22, the account posted: \u201cOh you like posting hit lists? Here\u2019s mine \u2026 Tim Briggs (D) Joanna McClinton (D) Morgan Cephas (D) Malcolm Kenyatta (D) All gun grabbing communists!\u201d<\/p>\n
Investigators said additional posts uncovered during the inquiry were similarly concerning.<\/p>\n
On March 23, the account posted a photo of an unidentified person holding a camouflage\u2011patterned rifle equipped with a sling, optic and suppressor.<\/p>\n
An April 7 post read: \u201cLook how full my hands are. Who are these people? They don\u2019t represent Pennsylvania. They are communist infiltrators.\u201d The post went on to say the writer planned to file a writ of mandamus and added: \u201cI\u2019ll approach every legal avenue and when they all fail I start shootings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beneath the word \u201cshootings\u201d were 18 names of Democratic lawmakers, including Schwank and Muth, whose district includes parts of Chester and Montgomery counties and extends into Berks.<\/p>\n
Five days later, another post stated, \u201cCan\u2019t wait for the Memorial Day operation, I can\u2019t wait to get back to normalcy\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Investigators noted the March 23 firearm photo did not match any images found through reverse\u2011image searches, leading them to conclude Berryhill had access to firearms or a strong interest in acquiring them.<\/p>\n
Through open\u2011source investigation, troopers linked the X account to Berryhill. Search warrants for both of his X accounts confirmed that his email address and phone number were used to create them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe statements made by Berryhill were not isolated or vague, but specified, targeted and directed toward identifiable public officials, including Joanna McClinton and numerous members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly,\u201d Trooper Zackeraya Elmarzouky wrote in the affidavit.<\/p>\n
Berryhill was been held in the Lebanon jail since his May 6 arrest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State police have charged a Lebanon County man with using an X account labeled \u201cPennsylvania militia\u201d to post…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[38913,39358,8633,93,674,39359,42,1544,39357],"class_list":{"0":"post-113779","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lebanon","8":"tag-berks-county","9":"tag-chester-county","10":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","11":"tag-lebanon","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-montgomery-county","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-pennsylvania","16":"tag-top-stories-lan"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116573621604347889","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}